The chief financial officer of the state Health Department, who helped bring the agency’s accounting irregularities to light, abruptly resigned Thursday, citing conflicts of interest and a disagreement with the interim health commissioner.

The Oklahoma State Department of Health and Gov. Mary Fallin set out to reshape strategies for markedly improving Oklahomans’ health. There was just one problem: The money to pay for them started to run out.

News about the financial crisis at the Oklahoma State Department of Health has focused lately on accounting schemes and questions of oversight. Getting less attention is what the debacle could mean for public health.

Documents released Friday by the Oklahoma State Department of Health detail a number of alleged deceptions, including fraudulent budget reports to finance officials and omissions in reporting the agency’s financial position to the Legislature and the State Board of Health.

The cash crisis at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, which was years in the making, raises questions about which agencies and state officials could have caught the agency’s reported financial mismanagement.

Hours after a grand jury met to look into allegations of financial mismanagement at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, lawmakers sent subpoenas to three of the state’s top budget officials. Meanwhile, the exodus of leadership at the Health Department continues in the wake of the agency’s sudden cash crunch.

Oklahoma lawmakers are being asked to approve $30 million in additional funding to help pay employees at the Oklahoma State Department of Health and stop the agency’s cash crunch, the interim health commissioner said Monday.

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A fourth of high schools across the state have eliminated world language classes over a decade, erasing the chances for thousands of students to acquire skills that could better prepare them for college and the job market.

Between 2012 and 2015, nine inmates in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary took their own lives, giving Oklahoma’s only state-owned maximum security prison the highest suicide rate among corrections facilities. Is solitary confinement to blame?